Boy with fish allergy dies after smelling fish cooking at New Year's Day gathering

By Alex Sundby

Updated on: January 3, 2019 / 12:31 PM
/ CBS News

Authorities in New York City were investigating whether the smell of fish being cooked at a family's New Year's Day gathering led to the death of an 11-year-old boy. Camron Jean-Pierre, whose father said was allergic to fish, died after being rushed to a hospital in Brooklyn, the New York Police Department said in a statement.

Medical examiners would determine what caused the boy's death, the police said. An investigation was ongoing.

Camron's father, Steven Jean-Pierre, told the New York Daily News his son had difficulty breathing after entering his grandmother's house, where fish was being cooked. "We knew he had an allergy … but usually, he don't get nothing that severe like that," Jean-Pierre told the newspaper.

"He don't eat fish," the father said. "We don't put it around him. It just so happens they was cooking it when we came in."